6 Performance Trends to Help You Move from a Good to Great Performer!

Problem

“How do I demonstrate my skills and worth during the contract so the Manager
realizes it’s a no-brainer to convert me to a full-time contributor?
How do I prove myself and secure permanent employment?”

These are questions on the minds of many Contractors who want to find a professional “home”
after an initial contract period.

Solution

Between the two of us, we’ve now been immersed in the world of Information
Technology staffing for 26 years. Throughout this time, we’ve identified
6 key trends related to performance that separate our “great” contractors
from the “good” ones, making them indispensable to their Managers/teams
and helping enhance their likelihoods of converting to a permanent employee after
the contractual period!

1 - Individuals who understand not just the “what,” but
the “how” and “why!”

We repeatedly
hear it during conversations with hiring Managers when qualifying their open
positions: "We really need someone who not only understands what they’re
doing, but how to do it best, and why they’re doing it in the first place.” During
the interview, and then when starting, we always recommend going macro to micro
in terms of details. Understand the industry you are in, the purpose and
goals of the company, the primary function and priorities of your group/team,
and the responsibilities of the specific role you will be in, and then connect
the dots on how your role will contribute to the big picture goals of the group
or company. The second piece of this is always striving to do your job
better and never becoming complacent! Managers appreciate when you conduct
regular self-evaluations of how you approach work/deliverables, how you engage
and work with others, etc. If you want to stand out, seek to understand
the big picture of how what you’re doing contributes to the group/organizational
goals, and then take steps to constantly evaluate and improve your work processes/deliverables
and interactions/communication.

2 - People with a “growth mindset” who “fail forward!”

Another key trait Managers admire is continuously learning
and evolving as a professional. In the technology world, where the only
constant is change, it is especially important to invest time in training and
development and continuously expanding your knowledge base. One of our Senior
Directors recently vocalized “I’d rather hire a candidate with
50% of the requirements and has a strong initiative to learn new skills (plus
the competence to do so) over someone who has 100% of the skills but no interest
in furthering their skill set.” Initiative is one of the key traits
managers look for. Additionally, recognize that mistakes are inevitable.
Managers respect those who bring any mishaps/issues up with a “lessons
learned” mentality and communicate, “Here is what I learned
and here is what I will do moving forward to minimize this from happening again.”
One of the Directors we support shared “If you’re not making
mistakes, you’re not taking risks, and therefore you’re missing
out on rewards and you’re failing to grow.”

3 - A positive attitude above all else!

One of
the primary reasons we see our clients part ways with contractors has nothing
to do with technology, but rather one trait that we are all in control of: our
attitude. A negative attitude is one of the easiest ways to single yourself
out for the wrong reason, especially when your pessimism/negativity starts to
influence the team and overall culture. Most good Managers are showing
an individual with a negative attitude the door, despite how technically skilled
they are! We have both had to let go of individuals for their negativity.
In one scenario, an individual’s overall pessimism and very unprofessional
comments about others, despite their high productivity, gave us no choice but
to say a farewell. After parting ways and removing that “negative
culture influence” from the workplace, the resulting impact to the culture
of the team was very apparent. The following day, one team member even
commented, “it’s like a black cloud has been lifted.”
This goes to show that most Managers will never tolerate a negative attitude
regardless of how strong someone’s technical skills and productivity are.
In need of an attitude adjustment? Here’s a past MSSQLTips article
we wrote on
’15
Ways to Maintain a Positive Attitude.’

4 - Effective communication skills.

Demonstrating
clear, concise, and compelling communication, along with follow up and follow
through, is a skill that will considerably distinguish you. We all get
a plethora of emails and workloads are heavy, but not responding, or a significant
lag time in responding, is not an option. Even if you do not know the
answer or do not have the time to complete a task right away, ensure you are
effectively communicating that and not just ignoring it altogether. In
addition, if you commit to doing something, do it. If you need help, alert
the necessary parties so you do not face the awkward situation of an impending
deadline with little to no progress. Also, be effective with the communication
channel you are using. Recognize what you should communicate in person,
via phone, or via email. We wrote a Tip on
‘The
10 Cs of Communication’ that provides insights into the key aspects
you should be considering when evaluating your communication skills and trying
to determine where you could improve. You can also pose this as an open-ended
question to your Lead or Manager, such as “What is a recommendation
you have around how I could improve my overall communication?” or
“I want to focus on taking my communication skills to the next level.
Where should I focus? And what other recommendations do you have for improving
overall communication?”

5 - Take complete ownership of their tasks, deliverables, relationships,
and mistakes, etc.

“I really need this individual
to take the ball and run with it!” Cliché? Yes.
Something we regularly hear? Yes again. Good Managers do not have
the time nor interest in micro managing, and they want individuals who take
ownership of their role, priorities, projects, etc. We recently had a Manager
who let an individual go because they failed to take ownership of two programs
they were tasked with building out. Their feedback was “I need
a real go getter who understands the vision of what we’re trying to achieve
and then builds out and assumes accountability of these programs. This
individual could generate some ideas of what they should be doing but then failed
at holding themselves accountable and taking the steps (i.e. the execution)
to actually get it done and make the impact without being micro-managed.”

6 - Proactive in nature.

Whether it be suggesting
enhancements to a process, solutions to an issue, training around a knowledge
gap team member/s have, or sharing a critical/negative update, Managers value
those who are proactive and do not wait for others to make things happen or
bring items to light! One of our favorite employees of all time stood
out instantly for first understanding all of our short and long-term goals and
their role, but then in their second week was proposing additional ideas and “value-adds”
for extra tasks outside of their job description that then contributed to those.
In another instance, an employee saw that certain tasks were bogging us down
and they not only volunteered to take it on, but they ending up making overall
process improvements that reduced everyone’s overall time commitment!
These are win-win situations for everyone!

Next Steps

While there are many qualities that Managers seek and value in their contractors
and employees, these 6 traits are common themes we hear from our Technology Clients/Managers!
If you are unsure what trait/s might be opportunities of improvement for you, do
not shy away from meeting with your Manager and inquiring “What else could
I be doing to further contribute? What’s 1+ area I could be focusing
on improving to take my performance and work quality to the next level?”

Last Update: 2018-05-17

About the author

Cate Murray is responsible for managing the nationally-based talent acquisition strategies of the Apex Systems PMO and Business Analysis Practice.

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